Helloplite said: GINI is not a reliable marker, however. It looks at inequality and disparity in wealth between the poorest and wealthiest. While it indicates the extent of inequality, it does not factor in other important qualitative characteristics, such as the the cost of average living (which, if low, even the poorest can get by), nor does it highlight how the poor of the country in question fare vis-a-vis other countries. USA has huge economic inequalities, but the average living conditions even for the poor, are still much better than in other less developed countries. |
And in some place of the US, $15 and hour you can't live on, wheras in some other places in the US, $15 and hour is a very nice wage and you will be comfortable.
All it takes is to look at real estate values. What I can purchase where I live may cost me $200,000. If I were to go somewhere else, that identical house and plot of land could cost me $1,500,000
Clearly I would need to make a shit ton more money to afford the exact same house in one part of the county versus another. So how reliable is this GINI if a person making $15 an hour is living life comfortably and someone else making $30 and hour is barely scrapping by? How is it that person who makes less is less poor than the person who makes more?
That GINI is pointless in big areas. It only works when comparing the same standard of living, which in the case of US is not the same across the country.